I have to say that I enjoyed it very much. Even though it's a small sampling of the game, I can already see that it's come a long way. Since it's not that long, I'll just bullet point my likes and dislikes.

Likes- the item system; the game has moved closer to a rogue-like/rpg game- pre-dungeon preparations- new sprites (all of which are great)- new mechanics (cowardly!)

Dislikes- weaken/corrosion; I don't like negative debuffs that I have to live with for the entire duration of the run, but that's just me- the desert dungeon doesn't have a desert tileset (I hope this is just because it's a demo)- some of the classes are still too similar; wizard and sorcerer are too similar, same basic goals: stack MP, burn them down with fireball; sorcerers do auto-attack more, but that's a simple logic switch to make, not really a separate class in my mind

I hope that Gods appear in every dungeon - a lot of these would've been easier had I even some of the worse Gods from the freeware version.

Overall, I'd give it an 8.5/10, and I can conclusively say that that would've been a 9/10 had Gods been in the game. :P

And now back to anxiously awaiting the full version!

EDIT: I really like the dungeon where everything resurrects as a zombie and the boss has three forms.

I'm a bit disappointed with the scope of the demo. The classes only go up to tier 2, for one thing and there's only 3 races to choose from (where are the potion races? Halfling Priest is basically the only Priest I play.) Also, I'm disappointed that there wasn't anything you can do with the Kingdom. I was kind of excited when the goat dropped its horns and then after returning to the kingdom my feeling vanished when I realized the demo isn't carrying anything over.

By the way, what happened to the hotkeys? Having to move my mouse over to the glyph icons instead of just clicking e.g 1,2,3 is very annoying.

I'm sure you understand, this is an E3 demo. We made it so that it could be played easily by the many people passing through the booth on the E3 showfloor, so letting you do anything with the Kingdom would make people stay on the booth for ages. We want to let as many people as possible try it at E3.

Once Beta goes live you'll be able to interact with the Kingdom, and the new hotkey system will be in place.

I really enjoy the new graphics, for one. It's like you've added more wit to a witty game.While the gameplay isn't that much different from the original, the additions you've made (sub-dungeons, preparations, etc.) are very helpful and spice up the game a bit.The difficulty levels! While I immediately skipped to the hard levels after seeing that the first boss I had to fight was level 5, the hard dungeons seemed challenging. Anoobis, for one, took me a while to figure out. I thought it was going to be easy UNTIL I REALIZED HE TURNED INTO A ZOMBIE. AND THEN INTO A SHADE.Absolutely great new mechanics. I like them a lot.

What I don't particularly like is the interface of the kingdom, or the dungeon selection for that matter. When I first saw the town in that first preview picture you guys put up, I thought it would be one of those "CLICK THIS BUILDING TO DO X." Perhaps it's just for demo purposes, but whatever. Choosing your race and class seem particularly awkward, since they're just on top of greyed out kingdom boxes. I hope this is just for the demo and gets fixed in the full release.And while I do like the dungeon variety in the demo, I think that the dungeon that has every monster and any boss would be in order. For old time's sake.

I really like where the game is going, though. I'll get around to purchasing it when I have enough e-moneys. Original until then for me.

desukase wrote:And while I do like the dungeon variety in the demo, I think that the dungeon that has every monster and any boss would be in order. For old time's sake.

You say you skipped to Hard, right? The sort of dungeons you're looking for can be found in Normal.

Though we want hard versions of the "every kind" dungeon, too ... ideally, we'd maybe have one or two scenarios where there's two bosses (like in the freeware challenge) but they're both random standards (like a souped up version of regular dungeons).

Atm I've completed everything except for the last hard mission. Like it a lot. In particular I like the new preparation mechanic - adds a lot of variation. Plants were interesting, though they didn't really change gameplay all that much.

My favourite level was also Hard lvl 1 (with the cultists). The theme was just so right. Loved the boss' writing and LOVED the sacrificial goat

Some comments too :Before trying, I was afraid that the new and nice graphics would be too small, and thus more confusing than anything. But actually, the new screen is big enough. I do particularly like having different graph depending on the race.

(What would nice, would be a sentence, specific to class/race combo when starting a dungeon. And to be even worse : have a specific one depending on the dungeon and when winning)

Of course, the interface still needs a lot of improvement, and I am surprised how much I miss the few sound from freeware.

The slot system for every piece of equipment seems pretty good.

The icon system to display abilities is convenient too. Too bad that we can't read it for monsters. (Maybe holding right click on the monster to be allowed to hoover over the icons ?)

It is refreshing to have multiple dungeons design, and I like the new possibilities brought by the event scripting (creeplight ruins was a nice trick)

Also the stats on who you killed at which level is really good.

Finally, there is one thing that I would expect from the kingdom : it is as it grows following your various excursion, have some bits of text changing in the various places reflecting the fact that it is getting wealthier. If you improve quicker some class, maybe when browsing another you could have some text telling that they are jealous, or the place looks abandoned... But I am text lover. So it might not be to everybody's taste.

So for now : looks promising. Let's wait and see. But at present time freeware is still more enjoyable.

flap wrote:Some comments too :Before trying, I was afraid that the new and nice graphics would be too small, and thus more confusing than anything. But actually, the new screen is big enough. I do particularly like having different graph depending on the race.

(What would nice, would be a sentence, specific to class/race combo when starting a dungeon. And to be even worse : have a specific one depending on the dungeon and when winning)

Of course, the interface still needs a lot of improvement, and I am surprised how much I miss the few sound from freeware.

The slot system for every piece of equipment seems pretty good.

The icon system to display abilities is convenient too. Too bad that we can't read it for monsters. (Maybe holding right click on the monster to be allowed to hoover over the icons ?)

It is refreshing to have multiple dungeons design, and I like the new possibilities brought by the event scripting (creeplight ruins was a nice trick)

Also the stats on who you killed at which level is really good.

Finally, there is one thing that I would expect from the kingdom : it is as it grows following your various excursion, have some bits of text changing in the various places reflecting the fact that it is getting wealthier. If you improve quicker some class, maybe when browsing another you could have some text telling that they are jealous, or the place looks abandoned... But I am text lover. So it might not be to everybody's taste.

So for now : looks promising. Let's wait and see. But at present time freeware is still more enjoyable.

The buttons won't be in the final game, they're just placeholders. You'll be able to see buildings steadily get bigger/better in the final game to match your progress. They didn't have time to put the art in and it's only a demo.

I do agree that we need to be able to read what monster abilities do. I can't always remember exactly what everything does. :P

Herborist wrote:The buttons won't be in the final game, they're just placeholders. You'll be able to see buildings steadily get bigger/better in the final game to match your progress. They didn't have time to put the art in and it's only a demo.(...)

Indeed. It was a way to say that there not much point commenting that. I do really love the background picture though, and am looking forward seeing it used at its full potential. (Would dungeon area appear as you progress ? Buildings being built when you unlock weird classes ? Building change shapes as you unlock more ? Ah, so much to do...)